Work, work, work. . .

Work is SOOOOOO overrated, as I've said before.

The past two weeks we have been getting the "stix house" ready for new garage doors. . . FOUR of them. Terry wanted to change out the trim on the doors, so he did that. I worked inside, cleaning things out and getting important data off the old computer. That is pretty much done now, so I have been deleting files there.

I also have been shredding documents. We have all Terry's parent's data from the beginning of time. I have been shredding, shredding, shredding. In fact, I burned up one shredder and am working on the second one. I do find it necessary to go through each paper. Terry thought I should just take it all to a commercial shredder, but I want to go through everything. It is a good thing I did, because it paid off. I found Henry and Valera's birth certificates and their marriage license. Imagine that! I think I will frame the license. . . it is a decorative document and I think Jocelyn might like to have it. She's into geneology and treasures family things.

We are getting ready to head to Virginia the end of the week. We are going to go see Ronan and his Mom and Dad and we will be supervising the installation of a new kitchen there. My parents are going with us but will driving their rig. We all like our own beds to sleep in.

We did attend the RV show here at the fairgrounds. It was not a very big show and not very well attended, but that made it easy to go through the rigs. We did get an idea for our rig, but I'm not sure if we will be able to make the change. We do want to trade out the one sofa for recliners. I really need a recliner when my back gets to hurting, so we are probably going to order a couple chairs.

We also had new windows put into one duplex. Can you believe an entire new window installed costs just double what replacing one pane of glass in one sash costs? Kind of a no-brainer. Course, it was a lot more money to do the entire building, but we had the windows wrapped as well, so there is no maintenance whatsoever on the windows, which is much better for us as landlords. If the windows work well, we will probably do the other buildings next year. For this year, garage doors and windows in one was enough. We still have some trim to paint on the house, but that will go quickly. Terry will sand and I will paint.

We are waiting here in the motorhome for the Michigan Nascar race. It is raining there as well, but I see they are trying to get the track dry.

I have been working on my new computer also. My old Averatec (3 years old) is burning up. I can't keep it cool enough to even stay on more than 15 minutes. Even with a cool mat, it just heats up. It gets so hot, you cannot lay your hand on it. I think I made the right decision to replace it when I did. I just hate setting a new one up. Today I transferred my financial data into a new version of Quicken, so now I have a lot of set up to do, but the major downloads are done.

Neal, my Wheaten Scottie, apparently has an allergy that just kicked in. He has been scratching a lot and driving us nuts. I had bathed him just prior to this, so I figured I didn't get all the soap off. So I put him back in the bathtub and rinsed him off. That didn't work. So then I gave him a cortisone tablet, and that helped, but he was still scratching. Yesterday I shaved him. He doesn't have any fleas, but has little bumps he is scratching. So today I sprayed benedryl spray on them and that seems to have helped. Poor little guy. He hates baths and considers them punishment, so he has really been upset with me. But I am just trying to help him. Bailey, aka Hell-Boy has been barking at him at night when Neal wakes him up scratching. Perhaps now we will all be able to get some sleep.

I see Nick and Terry, aka Gypsy Journal, have just left. They are headed to Iowa to teach Life On Wheels. They will be back before Escapade. The campground is pretty full and has been most of the week. People are rolling in, intending to stay through to Escapade, I think. We are leaving for a week, then we are going to the house for another week, then back over here for the pre-rally prior to Escapade.

We have enjoyed our time here. As I told Terry before, we get a lot more work done at the apartments when we aren't living there. It has been a very productive summer for us and we are looking forward to spending the winter in Florida with Brandon. Speaking of Brandon, he has changed jobs and wants to move from Melbourne to the Orlando area. He is a Senior Security Consultant with Novell now and is traveling a lot. He wants to be close to the airport. So our responsibility this winter is to help him find a house to buy. Should be fun house hunting. . . especially when we are spending HIS money and not ours! Hah!

Till next time . . .

Dale

Good times, good friends. . .

Tab and Deanna came to Elkhart Campground this weekend to visit with us! It was so great to see them. We sometimes get to stop by their place (Camp Pull-Tab) in Ohio on our way south or north depending on the time of year. We had breakfast Saturday morning at Callahan's in Elkhart and then skipped lunch. We went to all the usual haunts, RV Surplus, CampingWorld and the new American Market south on 19. We ate at Peddler's Village for supper for the Prime Rib Buffet and boy was it good!

Saturday night we set up the campfire under our awning and just visited with Tab, Deanna, and Major, their dog. Later, Nick took a break from writing the "Gypsy Journal," and he and Terry brought their chairs down and we enjoyed a lovely visit.

It started raining that night and we had quite a lot of rain in the morning. Tab and Deanna waited until there was a lull and came around to say goodbye. We watched them hitch up and waved as they drove away. We always hate to see good friends leave. They are headed to North Carolina at the end of the month to visit with Patti, our friend who lost her husband last November.

Till next time. . .

Dale

It's About Time . . .

Yes, I guess it's about time to post again. Sorry for the delay. We are at our "summer" place. We are actually at Elkhart Campground on Site 100, right on the end. We have found we get a LOT more work done on the apartments if we stay over here and then drive over to work for the day. Since we leave our computers here as well as satellite receiver, we have no distractions over there and get things accomplished much more quickly.

We arrived back here a little over a week ago and are getting ready for some major work. We are having garage doors installed on the the main house. Three go on the house and one on the apartment. We don't do that work anymore as Terry cannot do anything that strenuous, but they are ordered and we will be there. We were having some issues with the window quality of one of the duplexes and it's just not cost effective to fix one pane of glass. To do so is about half what a new window costs. So we got a quote for replacement windows and the price was very reasonable. We will be doing an entire duplex with new windows; and if they work out, we will probably do another next year. Once again, we are not doing the work, but will be there to supervise.

Saturday night it started raining here and rained all night. We really welcomed the rain although it didn't cool things down too much. They have not had rain here for some time and the crops were really in need. That said. . . . it can STOP anytime. We need to start building an ARK! Yesterday was clear but so hot and muggy. You felt like you were in a sauna. We were going to go to Shipshewana this week, but the rain and heat don't make for a good combination. Last evening we went over to the house to do a few little things and while we were there, a storm started kicking up. I hopped in the truck and came over to check on Phaeton Place. We had left our awning out as we weren't anticipating any storm. I got here just before it hit and got the awnings in and all the gear stowed. JUST IN TIME, TOO!!!!! It really let loose with a deluge so I even stowed the Datastorm. Lots of lightning and thunder and rain, rain, rain. I got out my Crocs, aka rainshoes, and when it let up. . . headed back for the house. We stayed there till my laundry was done, then we came back. There was another storm on the way and just as we went to bed, it started. Neal and Bailey do well in storms, but they want their Mommy right there with them. . . . SO, I got to sleep on the couch. When Terry got up this morning, I headed back to the bed and Bailey went with me. Right now it is not raining and a lot of the water is soaking into the ground, but it is going to do more yet today and the rest of the week.

We are headed to Virginia to see Ronan at the end of the month and Mom and Dad are going as well. They are taking their motorhome, too. We already have our reservations made as you must do that when there are only 2 campgrounds within 30 miles of Charlottesville.

Well, that brings you up to date. I have a couple pictures I will get posted, but we are just here working for the month, so nothing too exciting is happening. Eye doctor, dentists, things like that.

Till next time. . .

Dale